Encounter: Gorgon Calf

Cute

Today, I am looking at the dazed affliction, and it was crazy thinking of a good one. I talked with my brother for a long while bouncing ideas back and forth, and I decided on the "gorgon" which might be better called the "Strange Libyan Beast" or maybe Catoblepas to distinguish from the Greek mythological concept of a Gorgon. However, because of a naming used in The Historie of Foure-Footed Beastes, we well live with this ambiguity for all eternity. Gorgons can instantly kill with their breath, but I want something a little weaker, hence the reason we are using a calf. Let's see what we come up with for our pseudo-ungulate friend.

Mechanics

I went to this site and got some stats for an aurochs. We need to also add in an affliction on top of that. After figuring an adult aurochs is 1000 kg (huge!), I guessed an immature one to be around 200kg. Let's see what he looks like for CER.

Attack Skill	0	Active Defense	0
Affliction	10	Damage Resistance	2
Damage	9	Health	1
Fatigue Points	1	Hit Points	4
Move	6	Will	0
Total Offensive Rating (OR)	26	Total Protective Rating (PR)	7

Well, we are already past the point I like to shoot for. That is because the animal is pretty big, and because I have moved from statting the cheaper irritants to the more expensive incapacitations. I am going to set my target from here on out in this series to 25 - 45, lower is still better, but the important thing is to correctly intimate the feeling of the animal without adding more than we need. So, the last critical thing we need to add is some measure of fighting skill; both for the innate attack and for the mundane attacks. Let's go with a moderate amount because I feel this animal is a bit clumsy.

Attack Skill	5	Active Defense	0
Affliction	10	Damage Resistance	2
Damage	11	Health	1
Fatigue Points	1	Hit Points	4
Move	6	Will	0
Total Offensive Rating (OR)	33	Total Protective Rating (PR)	7

So, here we are, at 40 CER, let's write it out now in regular stats.

ST: 14	HP: 14	Speed: 5.25
DX: 9	Will: 10	Move: 8 (12)
IQ: 4	Per: 12
HT: 11	FP: 11	SM: +1
Dodge: 8	Parry: N/A	DR: 1*

*An additional 4 for a total of 5 in head locations but only from the front.
Horns-Stab (12): Reach 1, 1d+2 impaling
Horns-Strike (12): Reach 1, 1d+2 Crushing
Kick (10): Reach 1, 1d+1 Crushing
Slam (12): Typically 1d Crushing damage; if it has two turns to reach maximum move, it can do 2d crushing. Reciprocal damage received affects its head which is protected with a large amount of DR.
Immature Petrification Breath (12): 3 yard x 3 yard cone, Acc 3. Roll HT-4, or get dizzy and become dazed for Margin of failure minutes, or until you snap back by getting injured. This attack can only occur from the head. It can only be protected against by being sealed.
Traits: Discriminatory Smell; Enhanced Move 1/2 (ground); Hooves; Night Vision 4; Peripheral Vision; Parabolic Hearing 2; Perk (fur); Striker (horns; impaling); Striker (horns, alternate attack; crushing); Temperature Tolerance 1 (cold); Ultrahearing; Quadruped; Quirk (Careful); Quirk (Panic, runs when frightened); Quirk (Staid); Wild Animal;
Skills: Brawling-12, Stealth-9, Survival (Any)-12

Fluff

Since I kinda took the concept wholesale from an existing idea, you can find information about it in many places. I like this description here.

Other Notes

Baby animals. They are a weird way to twist a dagger for animal lover characters (and players). If you want to make this guy a little weaker, you could change Daze to Stunning, and that would put you in the under or equal to 30 CER range. You could be a nice guy and avoid using the impaling horn strike.

On the other hand, making it stronger is easy; you can give its breath a bigger range, and change it to a heart attack or petrification effect, and overall buffing its stats for a larger mass.

Players who like baby animals might be inclined to take one as a pet. Think about the pros and cons of an ungulate that can instantly kill by breathing on someone. People might be afraid of someone that has a pet gorgan, and try to kill it themselves. It could upset the more dangerous parent. On the other hand, if trained to be a cooperative beast of burden, it could be a powerful ally and assist with pulling large loads. 

A baby gorgon could be a red flag that a parent, or worse, a herd is nearby. 

The by-products of gorgon breath might be a good reagent for a type of magic or medicine. Perhaps a a weak dosage could help people build up an immunity to petrification effects, or maybe it can help engineer an attention deficit drug.

A dangerous strategy that the gorgon could employ during battle is attempting to daze an attacker, then running it through. It can also effectively slam and get away pretty easily. It has light DR though, so it is not especially difficult to defeat through mundane or other means.

Precis - Baby Bovine Breathes Badness.